In Hurricane, Twitter Proves a Lifeline Despite Pranksters

As Hurricane Sandy pounded
the U.S. Atlantic coast on Monday night, knocking out
electricity and Internet connections, millions of residents
turned to Twitter as a part-newswire, part-911 hotline that
hummed through the night even as some websites failed and
swathes of Manhattan fell dark.

As Hurricane Sandy pounded
the U.S. Atlantic coast on Monday night, knocking out
electricity and Internet connections, millions of residents
turned to Twitter as a part-newswire, part-911 hotline that
hummed through the night even as some websites failed and
swathes of Manhattan fell dark.

But the social network also became a fertile ground for
pranksters who seized the moment to disseminate rumors and
Photoshopped images, including a false tweet Monday night that
the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange was submerged
under several feet of water.

The exchange issued a denial, but not before the tweet was
circulated by countless users and reported on-air by CNN,
illustrating how Twitter had become the essential - but deeply
fallible - spine of information coursing through real-time,
major media events.

But a year after Twitter gained attention for its role in
the rescue efforts in tsunami-stricken Japan, the network seemed
to solidify its mainstream foothold as government agencies, news
outlets and residents in need turned to it at the most critical
hour.

Beginning late Sunday, government agencies and officials,
from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo(@NYGovCuomo) to the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (@FEMA) to @NotifyNYC, an account
handled by New York City's emergency management officials,
issued evacuation orders and updates.

As the storm battered New York Monday night, residents
encountering clogged 9-1-1 dispatch lines flooded the Fire
Department's @fdny Twitter account with appeals for information
and help for trapped relatives and friends.

One elderly resident needed rescue in a building in
Manhattan Beach. Another user sent @fdny an Instagram photo of
four insulin shots that she needed refrigerated immediately. Yet
another sought a portable generator for a friend on a ventilator
living downtown.

Emily Rahimi, who manages the @fdny account by herself,
according to a department spokesman, coolly fielded dozens of
requests, while answering questions about whether to call 311,
New York's non-emergency help line, or Consolidated Edison.

At the Red Cross of America's Washington D.C. headquarters,
in a small room called the Digital Operations Center, six
wall-mounted monitors display a stream of updates from Twitter
and Facebook and a visual "heat map" of where posts
seeking help are coming from.

The heat map informed how the Red Cross's aid workers
deployed their resources, said Wendy Harman, the Red Cross
director of social strategy.

The Red Cross was also using Radian6, a social media
monitoring tool sold by Salesforce.com, to spot people
seeking help and answer their questions.

"We found out we can carry out the mission of the Red Cross
from the social Web," said Harman, who hosted a brief visit from
President Barack Obama on Tuesday.